Confidence

Hooly22

This is probably going to be quite a weird post, but I'd appreciate anyones advice.

I'm 17, and in 5th year. I just had my parent teacher meetings there, and what 4 out of 7 teachers said about me, was that I had great ability in the subject, but had absolutely no confidence, and that was holding me back.

For example, this year I've considered dropping to pass maths, although I got moved up to the higher honour class because of my junior cert. But to me, it's all coincidence. I believe we had an easy exam that year, and I also got grinds coming up to the exam. My teacher told my parents I'm middle in the class, ability wise, but I really don't think i am. I feel like that in every class.
Every time I go into spanish, I feel thick!
Any good result I get in school, I can easily put it down to coicidence! Generally, I'm lucky with what comes up.

The teachers keep telling my parents to expect quite high good grades, but I don't think I can produce it.


Silly post I know, but I'm just in such a muddle!

Cathmandooo

I always hated parent teacher meetings, I wasnt a problem child so they never really had anything to say to my folks other than praise me, which raised their expectations of me, which in turn put pressure on me and left me thinking im dumb for not reaching my full potential. Personally I'd ignore what the teachers say.

If you can decide yourself what you want to do and set a realistic goal for yourself for college and stick to it and work for it then you'll be fine. Do your best, at the end of the day it's you who will be stuck with your life.

Good luck and keep your chin up!

estar

Hooly22 wrote: »

This is probably going to be quite a weird post, but I'd appreciate anyones advice.

I'm 17, and in 5th year. I just had my parent teacher meetings there, and what 4 out of 7 teachers said about me, was that I had great ability in the subject, but had absolutely no confidence, and that was holding me back.

For example, this year I've considered dropping to pass maths, although I got moved up to the higher honour class because of my junior cert. But to me, it's all coincidence. I believe we had an easy exam that year, and I also got grinds coming up to the exam. My teacher told my parents I'm middle in the class, ability wise, but I really don't think i am. I feel like that in every class.
Every time I go into spanish, I feel thick!
Any good result I get in school, I can easily put it down to coicidence! Generally, I'm lucky with what comes up.

The teachers keep telling my parents to expect quite high good grades, but I don't think I can produce it.


Silly post I know, but I'm just in such a muddle!

you dont get consistant good breaks in everything
you create luck through hard work. half the world gets grinds
if you were thick they wouldnt make much difference.
i had to work really hard at honours maths - twice as hard as
for the other subjects. but i considered it worth it as it was
a challenge.

have faith in yourself and enjoy learning. your teachers had nothing
bad to say about you. middle is very good!!! they said you were
middle with room for improvement.

what an excellent place to be. give yourself a pat on the back!!!

school now is high pressure with an emphasis on points. the
art of exam preparation is key to this, and you seem to have
that down pat, preparing for exams rather than just learning.

that is a really necessary skill to do well in our current system.
its unfortunate but its true.
so instead of feeling like you are a fluker, feel happy you
are able to prepare for and do well in exams, and capitalise
on this.

dont put yourself under too much stress. find the level
of work and study that you are able for and aim for that.
find out what you like and dont like as this will inform your
choices at college level.

its not all about high marks, its also about finding out
what you are good at, and what you enjoy.

best of luck

LadyJ

OP, if you're doing well at subjects and getting good grades then you're doing something right and the potential is there. I know a lot of people who dropped to pass in subjects because they didn't want to fail at higher level but they were perfectly able to do it. They just let a lack of confidence get the better of them.

Stop putting it down to coincidence and start believing that it's down to you.

kowloon

I wouldn't drop a level unless there was absolutely no hope whatsoever,

I also wouldn't put too much thought into what the teachers say to your parents, they don't put much thought into it unless you relly stand out (usually in a bad way).
I Would pay attention to what they say to you

Hooly22

Ok, I think some of the teachers will want to talk to me tomorrow.


I guess it's hard to know what I'm actually capable of. Teachers have said to my parents "oh she should be aiming for an A or a B" but I'm not as smart the other girls, they're the ones who get the A's and B's!

supertramp

Hooly22 wrote: »

This is probably going to be quite a weird post, but I'd appreciate anyones advice.

I'm 17, and in 5th year. I just had my parent teacher meetings there, and what 4 out of 7 teachers said about me, was that I had great ability in the subject, but had absolutely no confidence, and that was holding me back.

For example, this year I've considered dropping to pass maths, although I got moved up to the higher honour class because of my junior cert. But to me, it's all coincidence. I believe we had an easy exam that year, and I also got grinds coming up to the exam. My teacher told my parents I'm middle in the class, ability wise, but I really don't think i am. I feel like that in every class.
Every time I go into spanish, I feel thick!
Any good result I get in school, I can easily put it down to coicidence! Generally, I'm lucky with what comes up.

The teachers keep telling my parents to expect quite high good grades, but I don't think I can produce it.


Silly post I know, but I'm just in such a muddle!

No, not silly at all. That is an example in itself. You automatically think that it is silly,
I was unconfident too, thought I wasn't learning. It's only afterwards looking back that I realise how well I did learn. And also, what more I could have learned if I didn't worry so much as I did.
You'll be suprised in your leaving next year, wait 'til you see. Coincidence doesn't mean sh;t. You make your own luck.
Up n' at 'em!

Hooly22

Thanks everyone for all of that.

There's so many things I want to do when I finish school, but I feel like when I tell people.. the automatically assume " no chance will she be able to do that" but if one of my friends said it, I know they'd be able to do it.


I don't know where this all comes from because my parents don;t put alot of pressure on me or anything